Cambrian College’s new President, Sylvia Barnard, shared
her vision of Cambrian and its role in the local, national and
international communities during a special luncheon seminar held
on November 5, 2002. The luncheon was sponsored by the Greater
Sudbury Chamber of Commerce and was held in the Fontaine Blue
Room at Cambrian College.
She began her speech by using one of her favourite quotes to
set the tone for what she feels is the message that Cambrian
must deliver to its students.
"To accomplish great dreams, we must dream as well as
act."
In her view, Cambrian, which is ranked in the top six (6) out
of 24 community colleges in the province, is clearly delivering
the message loud and clear to the 4000 full-time students
enrolled in over 100 courses offered by the college. A further
9000 people take part in the 800 professional development
programs offered each year.
"We are proud of how the partnerships we have
established during our 35 years of existence have provided our
students with every opportunity available to make their dreams
come true," explained Barnard.
Locally, Cambrian has strong working relationships with
Laurentian and College Boreal as well as over 300 employers in
the north. Other significant partnerships exist provincially,
nationally and internationally.
"We try to keep on top of the pulse of the local
community in order to prepare our graduates for the future. When
I speak to employers, I ask them what kind of employees they
need in five years. By listening carefully to the answers, we
can design programs appropriate to those needs," Barnard
pointed out.
Cambrian is very involved with all sectors of the business
and industrial community and is concerned about economic
development stability in the region. For example, with over 400
full time and another 400 part-time instructors, as well as the
money brought into the community by funding and tuition, it is
estimated that Cambrian has a $135 million annual economic
impact on the Greater Sudbury Area.
With respect to the demographics of the region, Barnard had
these comments to make. "It is absolutely frightening to
think about the number of young people we are losing from the
area, but we have to realize that many of our children just want
to go away from home to study in order to explore their
independence. We just have to work harder to encourage them to
come back home after they graduate."
Barnard pointed out that the desire of students to leave home
to go to school could be used to our advantage in Sudbury.
"Just think about all of the students from the rest of the
province who want to leave home as well. We should be doing what
we can to attract those students to Sudbury."
One of the things that upsets Barnard, who herself is a
northerner, is the fact that "In Sudbury we keep
apologizing to people for the fact that we are from Sudbury.
Instead, we should be celebrating the fact that we are from
Sudbury. It is a great place to live and we have a lot of
positive things going for us. We have to spend more time talking
about the positive aspects of the community, especially to the
young people we are trying to encourage to remain here to work
and live."
Barnard is pleased to see the work being done to make the
City more student-friendly and indicated her commitment to
continued interaction by Cambrian with all sectors of the
Greater Sudbury Area. "We will continue to work with small
and medium-sized enterprises to enhance the economic development
of the region and give our young people reason to return."
Many of the people who attended the seminar left with a sense
of confidence that Cambrian will do what it can to improve the
image of the Greater Sudbury Area and continue to help stimulate
the local economy in order to provide a future for the
community.
RECENT STUDY CONFIRMS BRAIN DRAIN
Michael James, a writer with the Cambrian Shield, did an
article in the October 31, 2002 issue of the campus newspaper
which demonstrates a real need for a leader with Ms. Barnard’s
vision.
According to Cambrian career consultant, Judy Laplante, 88%
of the 1,318 students who graduated from Cambrian last year
found work, but most of the jobs were found outside the Greater
Sudbury Area. In fact, most of the jobs posted in Laplante’s
office are from out of town companies. Even job fairs which are
organized by the College to introduce students to potential
employers attract very few local businesses.
In a study done by Dr. David Robinson and Dr. Claude Vincent
of Laurentian University in February 2001, it was determined
that between 1991 and 1996, Sudbury lost 2,040 people between
the ages of 20 and 30 who had a post-secondary education.
The fact that so many graduates of our post-secondary
institutions must leave the area to find meaningful employment
should be of great concern to everyone in the community. More
must be done to encourage people to remain or relocate to the
Greater Sudbury Area, not only for education, but for a career.
In order to do that, we must find more effective ways of
marketing the strengths of the GSA to people from outside. By
stimulating the economic activity within our major clusters of
education, industry, health, tourism and recreation, we will
generate the type of employment which will reverse the trend
which has emerged in the region.
